Hyedam leisurely enjoyed his meal while watching the storm grow progressively more severe. Outside, the waves crashed frighteningly high, and rain poured down as if from buckets, drenching the windows and streaming down them.
In contrast, the interior where Hyedam was situated was coziness itself.
The sporadically placed lamps softly illuminated the house, and the classical music the AI had put on pleased his ears. A hum naturally flowed from Hyedam’s lips as he mixed his salad with a fork. Luna’s words about preparing only the finest quality items tailored to the customer seemed true, as the food she sent consistently suited his taste perfectly.
Marveling at the dressing as he ate the fresh salad and olives, his hand reached for the egg beside him. He tapped it against the table to crack it, dipped it in the prepared salt, and as he ate it, a satisfied smile spread across Hyedam’s face.
A cup of coffee to drink just when his throat felt slightly parched from the hard-boiled egg yolk.
Where could there be a more perfect meal than this?
After finishing the egg, Hyedam picked up a still-warm croissant, tore it lengthwise, and gazed out the window while putting a piece in his mouth.
Flash flash, rumble rumble, boom boom. Really going wild. Wild.
He had thought the soundproofing was perfect since he couldn’t hear the rain beating violently against the windows, but seeing how he could faintly hear the thunder rumbling through the sky, the situation outside seemed far from ordinary.
“It’s raining a lot. Won’t I be able to take a beach walk tomorrow?”
The sand was so soft that walking around barefoot on the warmly heated sand had become one of Hyedam’s favorite daily routines lately. The disappointment at the thought of not being able to do that lasted only briefly as Hyedam tore off more of the delicious croissant, put it in his mouth, and slowly rose from his seat.
Adjusting the shawl slipping from his shoulders, Hyedam stood before the large window and gazed at the sea for quite a while. It was the first time he’d seen a storm rage this close. The sky was dark gray, and the place illuminated by the flashing lightning was chaos itself.
Even though he knew nothing would happen, worries flooded in—whether the swaying palm trees might be uprooted, whether the increasingly high waves might crash into the house.
It seemed unlikely he could clean up the mess outside himself, so should he ask Luna again to send people? How much extra would that cost… It had been a miracle to rent this place at such an absurd price in the first place.
Tempted by the words that this was the off-season here, he had hastily signed the contract trusting only the photos Luna had shown him. He had been startled to wake up and find the house he’d messed up cleaned spotlessly, as if a helpful fairy had come and gone, with even the laundry perfectly done.
…That was also part of the service, apparently. Or something.
Well, someone who owns a villa like this in a place like this wouldn’t do laundry and cleaning themselves.
At first, he had even harbored the delusion that Leo’s influence might be involved. But after a week passed and two weeks went by with not even a glimpse or trace of Leo, he could fully trust Luna.
“Ah… there I go again. Tsk. I should make steak tomorrow.”
He had clearly been thinking about something else, but strangely, his thoughts always ended up directed toward Leo. Whenever that happened, Hyedam would shake off those thoughts by doing something else. Talking to himself more now that he was alone—ah, truly, are humans social animals after all?
Rubbing his considerably protruding lower belly with one hand, Hyedam headed toward the storage room at the back of the kitchen. Should he marinate the meat before bed? Ah! There was good salmon too—should he make skewers and grill them with teriyaki sauce?
Following the recipes Luna had sent one by one meant he could spend several hours preparing meals, so Hyedam’s cooking skills had been improving daily since arriving here. After all, he couldn’t order delivery, so what choice did he have?
On days when his morning sickness was severe, he would just eat things that didn’t smell much and were light, like bread or salad, but perhaps this little one couldn’t abandon his father’s tastes, as sometimes he desperately craved meat.
Just like right now.
Standing before the large refrigerator in the storage room, Hyedam placed well-trimmed and vacuum-sealed ingredients on a tray. After moving tomorrow’s ingredients to the refrigerator, Hyedam looked outside the window again.
Perhaps it wasn’t a storm that would last very long, as the fierce rain and wind had calmed down considerably. Had they been in the storm’s path? Since the island was small, the storm seemed to have passed in an instant, leaving behind rain and wind only slightly stronger than usual as its aftermath.
“Nothing serious will happen, right?”
He put the finished dishes in the dishwasher, and with nothing particular to do, Hyedam’s gaze kept turning outside. He could ignore it and just go to sleep like this, then look around tomorrow when he woke up… His contemplation lasted only briefly before Hyedam carefully went outside the house.
The wind was a bit strong, but the rain had changed to a drizzle, so it didn’t seem to be a dangerous situation. The palm trees and garden trees visible from the main door didn’t seem to have suffered major damage. Sand and unidentifiable seaweed were scattered over the usually crisp deck, making crunching sounds under his shoes.
Worried his foot might get stuck or something dangerous might happen, Hyedam didn’t go down to the sandy beach but moved only along the deck surrounding the house, arriving at a small rest area quite far from the house.
“No major problems, but I should ask them to send people. It’s about time for them to send supplies anyway. I’ll be leaving soon, so I should at least thank the people who’ve been secretly coming to do housework for me.”
He hadn’t even walked that much, but fatigue washed over him and he wanted to sit and rest for a moment, but there was nowhere suitable for him to rest in the soaking wet space.
“Right. It’s late at night, isn’t it? Let’s go inside and sleep quickly?”
Spending so much time alone, he found himself talking to the baby more and more frequently. Hyedam’s gaze stopped at one spot as he spoke with his hand on his waist rather than his lower belly.
This place was an uninhabited island.
That meant there was no one here but himself.
However, the large mass walking toward him from the back garden definitely resembled a human form. And in the back garden were the helipad and dock. The place where the means of transportation that could come here went in and out. Someone came through that storm? That couldn’t be.
With an uneasy heart, Hyedam quickly looked around. Something to protect himself with. The person who suddenly appeared might be friendly to him, but they might not be. If they had urgently come looking for a place to rest due to the suddenly worsening weather conditions… A sigh flowed from Hyedam’s lips as he gauged the distance between the house and this place.
Normally, he would run at full speed toward the house, but now wasn’t the situation for that. The path was slippery and his stamina wasn’t as good as before. He wished he had at least brought his mobile phone with him. Of course, even if he requested emergency rescue, it wasn’t a situation where he could be rescued immediately.
If he clumsily provoked the other person and something bad happened, he had no way to resolve it himself. It would be different if he were alone, but now he had something to protect. An existence that only he could protect in this world…
Wetting his parched lips with the tip of his tongue, Hyedam moved carefully. The person approaching from afar wasn’t lost or looking around. Hyedam’s heart began to beat rapidly as he watched the other person walking straight toward him.
If it was someone who needed help, he could offer the separate cottage next door rather than the main house where he was staying. Please let it be such a person… Just as Hyedam’s eyes narrowed, hoping that all the negative thoughts filling his head were wrong thoughts born from his anxiety—
A bear-like build. Above all, the moment he sensed the sharp coffee scent permeating the fishy ocean smell saturated with moisture, Hyedam covered his mouth with both hands and hesitantly stepped back.
There were many people with large builds. But people with this kind of scent weren’t common. A person with a large build and coffee scent. Someone who knew about this uninhabited island and could launch a helicopter or boat by their will alone regardless of the weather. And Luna.
Leo Lewis.
The moment one person came to mind, Hyedam’s pupils trembled. You haven’t appeared until now. Why now of all times. Could he have been flying near this area and quickly diverted here due to the bad weather?
Unable to make any decision, Hyedam had no choice but to stand there.
His heart shrank with each step he took closer. He couldn’t act rashly because he didn’t know what he knew. It would be good if he only complained about not returning even after the vacation period ended. If it was related to work, then it was his fault, so he was confident he could accept whatever words or actions came.
As long as he didn’t know about this fact he needed to hide the most right now, anything else didn’t matter.
“…Uh, ah. Um… hello?”
About ten steps with his wide stride? As Leo stopped at a place close enough that he could no longer be mistaken for someone else, Hyedam hesitantly opened his mouth.
